© National Portrait Gallery 2024
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
National Photographic Portrait Prize 2007 Finalist
Vera Butcher was born on Wednesday, April 5, 1916. She has lived through two World Wars and the Great Depression, and as a young woman walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge when it first opened. Her parents, Adelaide and James Lett, who both had Chinese ancestry, would often cook San Choi Bao, a traditional Chinese meal, for Vera and her six older siblings. However, references to the meal were anglicised and so, if asked, the Lett children would tell their classmates they ate 'johnny' for dinner. When Vera married and had three children of her own she cooked them 'johnny'. Her youngest daughter Verella, who is my mother, would cook 'johnny' also. It is only recently that Vera has begun to acknowledge and even celebrate her heritage. Earlier this year she attended my wedding to Stephanie who is half-Chinese. We served San Choi Bao to all the guests.
Photography is the most pervasive and popular medium for portraiture and makes a natural fit with the Gallery, being a natural extension of the Gallery's longstanding commitment to photography as a contemporary portrait medium.
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